The Global Poverty tax: Corporate Trojan Horse

Is the Global Poverty tax a humanitarian act? Or is it a Corporate Trojan Horse? US tax dollars are spent advancing the World Trade Organization's
corporate agenda of global food control. The WTO promotes (with our money) a set of stifling international regulations on agriculture, and it promotes
patented crops. Australian, Canadian and European Union farmers have already had parts of the regulations forced on them. The results are money in
the pockets of corporations and the removal of farmers from their land.

The Global Poverty Tax funds an attempt at world control of the food supply by corporations and it affects all of us. Once family farmers have been
removed from their land, and corporations control seed and livestock through patents, it will be too late. Biodiversity and traditional farming
knowledge will be lost. Make no mistake: Even though the regulations are purported to be about food safety, they are actually about control. People
need to be warned of the true agenda behind the Global Poverty Tax.

Here are some comments of a person in Africa who is trying to save the Zebu cattle in Kenya:

Don't even start me with the USDA. They work in the world under united states urgency for international development, and they are the biggest
dumpers of dangerous foods... Village do not accept free dry milk and food staff any more, any thing with the USAID and USDA[label]... Yes we have a
lot of Government interference but the biggest thread to our survival is the Billion of American tax money and any other rich countries sending to
Africa for poverty eradication...The government and big malty national cooperation's are our number one enemy ... The worst thing they did is
that they coursed so much land degradation of small farmers by using too much nitrogen phosphate chemical fertilizers and over relying on just one
crop without rotation. This has created the top soil to be so acidic and since the villagers cleared the trees to make room for sugar cane crops there
is nothing to prevent top soil from getting washed into the rivers then on to lake Victoria.. All the river streams flowing into the Lake are carrying
so much soil and Chemical fertilizers in such a way that in a few years there will be no Lake Victoria ...What Heifer International , and Land O lake
is doing to Africa and the world it is a shame. Heifer international Animals dies within three months of their arival to Africa [The zebu must be
killed or sold before the Heifer International animal is brought in.]

"The $1.2 billion the World Bank says will solve the food crisis in Africa is a $1.2 billion subsidy to the chemical industry.” Vandana
Shiva, an Indian physics professor and Organic Consumers Association Advisory board Member, speaking in Italy in response to the the U.N. food summit
in Rome last month, where the World Bank pledged $1.2 billion in grants to help with the food crisis, most of which is earmarked for chemical
fertilizers, pesticides and genetically modified (GM) crops.

[The EU chairlady said of Polish Farmers ] “..it will be necessary to shift around one million farmers off the land..” a lady from
Portugal [then]...remarked that since Portugal joined the European Union, 60 percent of small farmers had already left the land. “The European Union
is simply not interested in small farms,”...

Jadwiga and I felt desperate to try and avert this tragedy. An uphill struggle ensued, which involved ... risking the wrath of the agribusiness and
seed corporations who were gleefully moving-in behind the EU free trade agreements while a bought-out government stood aside....Farmers, however,
stand in the way of land acquisitions; so they are best removed. Corporations thus join with the EU in seeing through their common goals and set about
intensively lobbying national government to get the right regulatory conditions to make their kill.

(10) At the United Nations World Summit in September 2005, the United States joined more
than 180 other governments in reiterating their commitment to achieve the United Nations Millennium Development Goals by 2015.......

(a) STRATEGY.—The President, acting through the Secretary of State, and in consultation with the heads of other appropriate departments and
agencies of the United States Government, international organizations, international financial institutions, the governments of developing and
developed countries, United States and international nongovernmental organizations, civil society organizations, and other appropriate entities, shall
develop and implement a comprehensive strategy to further the United States foreign policy objective of promoting the reduction of global poverty, the
elimination of extreme global poverty, and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goal of reducing by one-half the proportion of people
worldwide, between 1990 and 2015, who live on less than $1 per day....

Food production is the most important goal to those living in poverty. History shows food can be used as a weapon. WTO and other International
Organizations are setting up a situation to grab farmland from the poor and monopolize food production. The weapons used are international
regulations and patented crops and livestock.

...FAO provides support to the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the World Food Programme (WFP) for their field
project activities as well as to the World Bank concerning guidelines on harmonization and standardization...” www.envirosecurity.org...

Please visit the link provided for the complete story.

The World Trade Organization (WTO) published a directive that forbids quarantine and testing, while specifying implementation of traceability instead.
The USDA's adherence to this agreement, combined with their desire to maintain a so-called disease-free status, is why the USA is seeing so many
food recalls. Management tools and traceability are replacing testing for disease and use of quarantine.

The WTO (SPS Agreement)

Article 3 Harmonization
1.To harmonize sanitary and phytosanitary measures on as wide a basis as possible, Members shall base their sanitary or phytosanitary measures on
international standards, guidelines or recommendations....

Aims to ensure that governments do not use quarantine and food safety requirements as Unjustified trade barriers to protect domestic industries from
import competition. It provides Member countries with a right to implement traceability as an SPS measure

Following a request by OIE International Committee, and to further develop collaboration with the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC), a permanent
‘OIE Working Group on Animal Production Food Safety’ was established in 2002.

...The work of ISO Technical Committee 34 (food products) seems most related to work in various Codex Committees ...Under the proposal, each Codex
Committee would assign a representative to monitor and review ISO work in its area of interest..

The OIE international standards can be used by its 169 Members to prevent the introduction of diseases and pests arising from trade in
animals and animal products, while avoiding unjustified sanitary barriers.www.rr-americas.oie.int...

Please visit the link provided for the complete story.

IDF and the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) signed a formal agreement of cooperation in May 2003...Upon invitation by OIE, IDF has
participated in the most recent meetings of an OIE/FAO Drafting Group on the Guide to Good Farming Practices

Even animal ID and traceability are costly and time consuming for the family farmer.

Animal identification and traceability

The Working Group reviewed the work done by the OIE ad hoc Group on animal identification and traceability.. It acknowledged that traceability is
important for public health, animal health and other managerial reasons. The Working Group agreed that the OIE, in conjunction with the FAO, should
prepare a document to assist the practical implementation of future OIE standards on animal identification and traceability.... The Terrestrial Code
Commission endorsed and finalised the draft chapter on animal identification and traceability.

The OIE “disease-free status” requirements encourage wholesale slaughter of healthy livestock and wildlife instead of the use of vaccines.(see
Table 1) It also encourages countries to severely cutback on testing because a positive test could mean losing “OIE disease free status”
inviting import bans by other countries.

When one of the diseases listed in Table 1 is reintroduced into a country, stamping out is the only recognized method of disease control if that
country does not wish to go through the qualifying process from the start. However, the stamping out policy may become cause for public concern once a
disease outbreak affects a critical number of holdings and large numbers of animals have to be slaughtered.

The GAO document 05-214 talks about depopulating both diseased and healthy animals, wild and domestic, in 10-km zones around infections.
www.gao.gov...

Anyone within 6 mile or 10 km of a disease animal could be subject to quarantine or decontamination. Your pets maybe slaughtered. (The euphemism is
"depopulated".) Barns and possibly houses could be subject to burning. I suggest reading:

“ ..the patenting of biodiversity begins by addressing how the World Trade Organization (WTO) incorporated the first international law to
require intellectual property protection for living forms (microorganisms). The goal within the WTO, dating from 2000, is to extend patent laws
over all plants and animals (Article 27.3b)..” www.africafocus.org...

Please visit the link provided for the complete story.

INTERNATIONAL ANIMAL PATENT SERVICES
As the animal recording and evaluation industry evolves, so will ICAR membership. The recently revised by-laws provide the opportunity for expanded
membership and a broader level of participation... ICAR will continue to build on its strength of neutrality and integrity as related to standards
and guidelines for animal recording, evaluations and equipment approvals. This will include further strategic alliances with international
organizations including EAAP, FAO, IDF, OIE, ILRI, WAAP and ISO...

The mission of the ICAR Patenting Sentinel and Action Service (PSAS) is to:

constantly update its members on patenting application legislation in the animal sector, so as to lead to a deeper knowledge of the theoretical and
practical aspects of this issue;

monitor specific patent applications worldwide, which are of most interest to its members;

possibly take action in a rapid and effective way in relation to specific patenting applications. www.icar.org...

Please visit the link provided for the complete story.

Monsanto Company, already a world powerhouse in biotech crops, is shaking up the swine industry with plans to patent pig-breeding techniques and
lay claim to the animals born as a result. www.saynotogmos.org...

Please visit the link provided for the complete story.

The USDA and state fairs are gathering DNA samples from show animals. One wonders who will end up owning this DNA material. Monsanto perhaps?

IDTRAK™ is a DNA banking system designed for livestock owners. All animals have a unique genetic profile. IDTRAK™ allows livestock
owners to maintain that unique genetic profile as a historic record. These records can be needed for a variety of situations where you need to trace
the identity or parentage (family tree), breed or association registration, trace back due to later event (sales, siring, disease, or reproduction
issues) or even to use for future genetic testing. Right now, genetic companies are working hard to discover genes that affect economic traits in
livestock, such as meat quality, disease resistance, reproduction, and others. www.wednaid.com...

Please visit the link provided for the complete story.

Randy Ingram is President & CEO

Randy has held senior management roles with major agricultural life science companies for over fifteen years. These experiences include the
use of DNA markers in plant genetic applications for over a decade. www.wednaid.com...

Please visit the link provided for the complete story.

How will patented livestock be forced onto farmers, by killing off un-patented livestock?

The results of the “New Improved Regulations” are most evident in the UK. The WARMWELL site chronicles the plight of the UK livestock farmer.
The History of UK 2001 foot & mouth disease:www.warmwell.com... a must read, is the story of the destruction of UK
farming by European Union regulations.

These EXCERPTS from the WARMWELL SITE show the state (or death) of current UK farming

January 8 2008 ~ "Who will rid us of this pestilent farming?"

Defra has dropped the word 'farming' from its title. The Telegraph today reveals that
"Defra and the Treasury's joint vision document of 2006 presented to the EU argued that supports for farming should be completely abandoned.."

The gloomy suspicion held by many was put forcibly into words by Mr Langrish:

A letter in yesterday's Telegraph spells it out: "The UK government no longer wishes to have anything more to do with agriculture; and thoughts of
food security have, for the time being, disappeared."
"It's all part of Defra's policy to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases. The UK government believes a reduction in livestock numbers will have a
marked effect on the statistics. This is the logic of the asylum, where the lunatics are now completely in charge." .

March 14 2008 ~ British hill farmers doomed by "failed and flawed government policies".

" Hill farmers... have been badly hit by flawed policies on animal disease, failed IT systems for payments, huge burdens of regulation, and
prescriptive, unworkable environmental schemes dictated by the likes of Natural England and the RSPB... The Government is ruining sustainable systems
of land management and livelihoods.

Magnus Linklater in today's Times notes that

"...overall there is little sign that policy-makers have grasped the enormity of what has happened. The UK is now barely 60 per cent
self-sufficient in food.. It is clear that the Government has yet to react to the dimensions of the looming world food crisis.

“....big investors are "hurriedly moving their wealth out of stocks and shares and into farmland...." The Times article suggests that,
"Across the world, hedge fund managers, property developers and other investors" are all ready to buy up British farmland.

“ the automaker Mitsubishi, which also controls the second largest bank in the world, has become one of the world's largest beef processors,
demonstrating the degree to which capital has flocked to the agribusiness sector....” Source: W. Heffernan, "Concentration Of Agricultural
Markets," Unpublished paper, Department of Rural Sociology University of Missouri-Columbia (October, 1997).

Barton Briggs, one of Wall Street's most legendary investment strategists, is advising the rich and powerful to buy up farms and stock them
with "seed, fertiliser, canned food. wine, medicine. clothes etc." (and the "etc" would seem to mean guns to keep away the rest of us...)

8/29 April ~‘commodities super-cycle’ likely to cause starvation on an epic scale.

An article at www.countercurrents.org comments bluntly: "Major ecological disasters, such as the recent drought in Australia, which hit food
production and drive up basic commodity prices, are good news for the corporate investor.....the biofuel sector is currently regarded as a potential
source of huge returns for investors. .."

JBS wants to expand in the U.S., Australia and Europe to bolster sales in markets that restrict imports of Brazilian beef. “This is a global
company that processes cattle in Europe, Brazil, Argentina, Australia and the U.S., and it will help secure bigger markets overseas because of our
expertise in selling beef around the world,” a JBS spokesman told me.

Is the US government setting up livestock farming for a US version of the UK foot & mouth disease scenario?

"A Department of Homeland Security analysis of potential locations for a laboratory to replace the Plum Island Animal Disease Center says the
cost of escaping pathogens to the national economy would be greater at five mainland sites than a leak from a new facility on Plum Island."

Enforcement of seed patents and regulations that prevent the sale of “unlisted” seed varieties has completed the corporate cartel's objective of
monopolizing seed sales in the EU. Their further objective is to spread similar regulations worldwide.

Under WTO rules on free trade in agriculture, countries are forbidden to impose their own national health restrictions on GMO imports if it is
deemed to be an ‘unfair trade barrier.’

FAO is supporting harmonization of seed rules and regulations in Africa and Central Asia in order to stimulate the development of a
vibrant seed industry...An effective seed regulation harmonization process involves dialogue amongst all relevant stakeholders from both
private and public sectors. Seed quality assurance, variety release, plant variety protection, biosafety, plant quarantine and phytosanitary issues
are among the major technical areas of a regional harmonized seed system. The key to a successful seed regulation harmonization is a strong
political will of the governments involved

”supporting harmonization of seed rules and regulations” does this mean regs such as Order 81 in Iraq that removes the farmers right
to save seed or the EU reg listed below? ”the development of a vibrant seed industry” does this mean the selling of patented seeds by
multinational corporations? "Strong political will of the governments" does this mean the governments ignore the wishes and best interests
of their people as the USDA is doing in the USA?

In the EU, there is now a list of 'official' vegetable varieties. Seed that is not on the list cannot be 'sold' to the 'public' To keep
something on the list costs thousands of pounds each year...Hundreds of thousands of old heirloom varieties (the results of about eleven thousand
years of plant breeding by our ancestors) are being lost forever, due to some rather poorly drafted EU legislation.

They did not breed "Terminator seeds".. the original variety was stolen, not collected. NapHal is the name given by W.Koelz, USDA. However
Koelz clearly did not make the collections himself..” [NOTE: USDA did the stealing for the patenting company]

Recently, Monsanto signed an agreement with the CNC, formalizing the future sale of GM seed to CNC farmers as soon as it is legal. In exchange,
Monsanto has initiated a project to “conserve” native varieties, hoping to create a database and seedbank of Mexico’s maize varieties.

In Mexico..Monsanto ..signed an agreement ,.. to establish regional seed banks.. CNC members were.. charged with assembling collections of
native corn to be housed in Monsanto-financed repositories. (Big bucks from Cargill and Maseca-ADM have also funded the seed banks.)
55 per cent of the crops needed to feed the human race are now grown by just ten corporations. The biggest players in this monopoly game are Bayer,
Dow, Dupont, Syngenta (once Novartis), and Monsanto...
Monsanto, which dominates 71 per cent of the GMO seed market...Farmers are forced to sign contracts, agreeing to buy GMO seed at a company-fixed
price. Monsanto's "Terminator" seed,.. goes sterile after one growing cycle.. farmers .. who have resisted Monsanto.. have learned.., pollen
blowing off contaminated fields will spread,.. Monsanto will then send "inspectors".. to your farm, detect their patented strains, and charge you
with stealing the corporation's property...

SEC. SCHAFER: ...Second, the United States supports urgent measures to attack the underlying causes of food availability in developing
countries that have the capacity to rapidly increase production and availability of staple foods.
Third, the United States will propose that all countries consider strategies that expand research, promote science-based regulations, and
encourage innovative technology – including biotechnology.

... Administrator Fore and I will be hosting a side event focused on new technologies to showcase developing countries that have moved forward with
public investment in adoption of bioengineered products.

SEC. SCHAFER: Well, I think it's a broad issue, and certainly the bioengineered crops are but one of many situations that need to take place for
increasing yields around the country if we're going to meet the demands of increased consumption.
.... And what we see is: increased production, less use of fertilizer and water, products that are conditioned to soil and climate conditions that
are directly, they are better-flavored, better looking. They work with the consumer better. But importantly, they increase the food supply.

Obviously biotechnology has made great strides.... As we move into now this food demand situation, we're going to have to increase yields across the
country if we're going to feed people properly, and biotechnology is one of the ways that we can increase yields to make sure we meet the demands.

Sec Schafer makes it clear in these statements that the US will be “encouraging” Third World Countries to implement international food and
agriculture regulations. Schafer's term “science-based regulations” means a country has “harmonized their food legislation with Codex
Alimentarius standards” see: www.fao.org...

Secretary Schafer is actively selling bioengineered crops (GMO) despite protests against GMO's around the world, evidence that GMO crops are NOT as
productive as native varieties and maybe hazardous to your health. The United States FDA determined GMO crops were no different than natural
varieties so no testing was required before they were put on the market. This is the Trojan Horse in action.

SYNGENTA CONFESSES:
GENETICALLY MODIFIED CROPS CANNOT FEED THE WORLD

Martin Taylor, the chairman of.. Syngenta, admitted that biotech foods cannot feed the world... "GM won't solve the food crisis, at least not in
the short term." This is in stark contrast to the biotech industry's ongoing propaganda that the world must embrace genetically engineered crops in
order to feed the world's growing population. Although Syngenta and other biotech giants like Monsanto regularly also claim that GM crops are
environmentally sustainable, Syngenta's chairman confessed the biotech industry's real focus is on lucrative crops and high-priced seeds and
pesticides with "hardly any environmental benefits".

... a contributor to the FAO's Forum, Professor El-Tayeb, Ph.D. Professor Emeritus of Industrial Biotechnology at Cairo University commented
that: "..currently available (GMO's) mostly contribute negatively to poverty alleviation and food security - and positively to the stock
market."

José Bové, the farmer hero to so many in France and elsewhere has launched an anti GM hunger strike today (3 Jan 2008) in Paris. (José Bové is the
force behind the Confederation Paysanne, the 2nd largest farmers' union in France.) The majority opinion in France is that GMOs could harm humans and
wildlife by triggering an uncontrolled spread of modified genes.

"GMO chemical companies constantly claim they have the answer to world hunger while selling products which have never led to overall increases in
production and which have sometimes decreased yields or even led to crop failure."

What follows after the farmers change over to GMO seeds after millennia of planting and making a livelihood in organic farming is a horror story
of bad harvests, huge debts, increased costs for herbicides and fertilizers (in spite of the companies' promises of lower costs), and the suicides of
thousands of farmers in Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala... Dr. Vandana Shiva, a former particle physicist, has for the past three
decades done more than anyone else as an activist to attract the attention of the world to the deadly corporate horror story of genetically modified
products.

Now the full toll—surely among the largest sustained waves of suicides in human history—is becoming apparent.... It is important that
the figure of 150,000 farm suicides is a bottom line estimate.... As Professor Nagaraj puts it: "There is likely to be a serious underestimation of
suicides...what has driven the huge increase in farm suicides, particularly in the Big Four or ’Suicide SEZ’ States? "Overall," says Professor
Nagaraj, "there exists since the mid-90s, an acute agrarian crisis... Cultivation costs have shot up in these high input zones, with some inputs
seeing cost hikes of several hundred per cent... Meanwhile, prices have crashed, as in the case of cotton, due to massive U.S.-EU subsidies to their
growers. Or due to price rigging with the tightening grip of large corporations over the trade in agricultural commodities."

Nothing brings out the conspiracy side of me more than Monsanto and their testicle grab on the governments of most of the world.

I guess its time to stock up on whatever non-GM seeds are left and start planting that garden.

Then again I wonder if local law will start catering to Monsanto and their kind and somehow prevent people from planting their own garden through
zoning laws. I can see it now, to reduce chances that a GM seed will will find their way into a private garden, and thus somehow violate licensing,
get rid of all private gardens through zoning or other property restrictions so local politicians don't have to worry about lawsuits.

Take a good hard look at the "Guide to Good Farming Practices" The FDA, who is in control of veggies is making noises about adhering to Codex
standards. So gardening maybe out unless you get a premises ID and follow the regs.

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